St Francis
by Jacksonluver101
Summary: Where a reformatory school turns out to be more of a cult loving, law breaking, murder enthusiast filled school. Told in Annabeth's point of view. One day, a body is found by the Old Crossing river. How did it get there? Learn about the students, teachers and criminals at the St. Francis reformatory school before things go to hell.


There's a lot of things that someone could love about Percy Jackson. Even if I tried my hardest, I don't think I could name them all. He was something of a fairytale; unbelievably kind, charismatic and he had his fair share of good looks.

We loved him. Honest we did, and we didn't mean to hurt him. We pushed him too far, we asked too much and for that we are sorry. We are all so sorry.

I remember the first time I met him. The new kid, standing in the office, alone and frightened. At least, as frightened as someone can be when they're a good head taller than everybody else. He didn't appear to be shaking, but that was unlikely. Usually when people came here it wasn't by choice. It wasn't because they purposefully set their chemistry lab on fire and punched a kid in the face until all of their teeth fell out just so he could end up here. No. This was a last resort, one that most dreaded.

The closer I got, the sturdier he became. The air around him was fresh, and I had to fight the urge to deeply inhale. I hadn't been to the coast in years. Taking a second to compose myself, I placed my hand gently on his arm.

"Hi," I said, "My name's Annabeth. I'll be showing you around today." He began to turn around, and so I threw him a smile. His face caught me off guard. Handsome. He had an air of confidence and lure to him. In his presence, I felt assured like this place wasn't a one way road to nowhere and that I could do anything I wanted to. Like kiss him. This was unreasonable for a multitude of reasons, but still the uneasy feeling that had kept me constant company since my arrival here seemed to ease. I waited patiently for his reply, for what felt like decades. And honestly it did. My teachers liked to say I have a busy mind, one that works at nearly one and a half times faster than everyone else. It caused pain and discomfort for most of my life, until I found my stepmoms 'medicine' in the bathroom when I was seven. At that age, I didn't know what drugs were or the damage they can cause. Within two months, I'd dived head first into an ocean of prescription pills. I didn't do it to be cool. I didn't do it because I was pressured to. All I knew at the time was that when I took the 'medicine' my headaches went away. And since it was medicine, I honestly thought that was what it was supposed to do. So at seven years old, I was a drug addict. My misbehaviour at school, and my violence towards my peers revealed what I'd been up to back home, and so I was sent to "St. Francis" reformatory school, where they can still make "Goode Kids out of Bad Pasts". Since I'm still here, I'd question the program's success.

"Oh hey! I'm Percy." I grabbed ahold of his outreached hand. With a firm shake, things felt different. Hopeful almost. But there seemed to be a warning that throbbed behind it.

We grabbed his schedule and wound our way through the empty hallways. Light banter flowed between us, neither feeling the need to deepen the conversation but neither of us felt quite comfortable with silence either.

"Wait so, you actually lit your school on fire?"

"It was an accident!" His mouth pulled downward into a frown but the corners of his mouth were twitching slightly, trying to fight of a smile. I laughed and reached over to spin the combination on his new locker. It popped open with a bang, and Percy stacked his books along the top shelf.

"Honestly. No one told me not to open the furnace door." The corners of my mouth pulled higher into a toothy grin. "But why were you even down there to begin with?" It was subtle, but Percy's body tensed up. He failed to answer as we closed his locker and walked off to the cafeteria. Most of the students had gathered there for lunchtime.

The silence hung on, like a stubborn child, refusing to leave. After two minutes, he cleared his throat. His hand rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, while he threw me a lopsided grin. "I'm not very good with meeting new people. I'm actually pretty nervous." He admitted. His eyes flickered to the large swinging doors that would soon open to a room full of about 700 students. I smiled at him and rested my hand lightly on his lower back. With an encouraging prod, we walked in together.

I couldn't say that I understood being new. 'New' and 'Foreign' situations were something that didn't find their ways into my life. I'd never left the school walls for longer than class daytrips, and all these students had been enrolled after me. So I knew everybody. I grew up with everybody. This place was my home and these people were my family.

I peaked at Percy from under my lashes. His face was hard like stone, set in a neutral expression with his shoulders pulled back and tense. I imagined someone like Percy couldn't be a stranger to attention and being the new kid and yet it appeared he still didn't know how to really go about it. I pointed across the cafeteria to a table hidden away in the corner. "Over there. That's where I sit. You can join us today if you want to?"

He wanted to.

We walked over to the table, where five teenagers sat fully immersed in an argument. I rolled my eyes fondly, while I lightly shoved Grover to the side making room for two seats. Grover seemed to be firmly standing his ground about how global warming is a consequence of specifically Thalia and her consumerism ways. Thalia, who was a temperamental punk rock love child, was not known for her patience but instead for how the most irrelevant things can offend her to the point of psychopathy. Being blamed for the death of the planet was one of those things.

"You and your stupid lipsticks that are only available because of animal cruelty and abuse! How could you encourage behaviour like that?"

I thought I could see steam pouring out of her ears. Like me, Thalia had been enrolled in the school for substance abuse, although at 15 that was hardly uncommon. Her dad had money and didn't want her misbehaviour to tarnish his reputation. So he threw around some cash and here she was. I'm not too upset about it if I'm being honest. Thalia is my best friend.

And Grover, well he killed a kid. It wasn't intentional, or so he says. He'd been attending an environmental activist rally when some kid began to slander the whole movement. A few of the guys there, including Grover had taken a few tokes before leaving for the rally. They didn't know the marijuana was laced, and the toxicologist that took their blood samples after said there were traces of Meth. The boys had beaten the poor kid to death out of pure, tree hugging fury. Grover had been the only minor, and while the other two were sent off to prison G-Dog was sent here.

He jokes that he would rather have gone to prison.

I don't think he's joking.

The rest of the group sat around the table in passive amusement, Jason and Leo laughing at Thalia's disgruntled squeak and Calypso and Piper staring intently at Percy. I could hardly blame them but I still found myself squirming in discomfort. After all, I'd seen him first.

Piper was a kleptomaniac and her dad didn't really know how to deal with her, and Calypso is what one might call a nymphomaniac. Basically they're both crazy, driven by illogical desires and dirty thoughts. But weren't we all.

Percy sat silently in his chair, like a good boy. It only took about two minutes for Thalia to notice him, or us more likely.

"Hey Annie, who's the kid?"

"Don't call me Annie." I snarled "His name is Percy. Just arrived." I threw a look his way and all the boys groaned. I threw a different look their way. "Percy, this is Grover, Jason, Leo, Thalia, Piper and Calypso." I went around the table clockwise, each guy nodding their head slightly in response to their name, Thalia huffed and crossed her arms, and Piper and Calypso batted their eyes.

Percy was that present you got for Christmas that you didn't know you wanted, but couldn't let it out of your sight once you got it. I bit my tongue to prevent from lashing out at my friends. This was my Christmas present. I saw him first.

"Hey." Percy said, throwing a hesitant smile around the table. Silence took over again, but only briefly. Leo, who had been thrown into St. Francis for Arson, tapped his finger nervously and smiled largely.

"Yo Perce my dog. My man. My mandog, what did you do to get yourself stuck here?" He wriggled his eyebrows and winked, before leaning back in his chair, relaxed.

Leo had weird behaviours.

Percy remained tense, so I grabbed his hand in comfort and encouragement. Calypso had the same idea, resting her hand on his thigh squeezing it in what was supposed to look like reassurance.

"He lit his school on fire. Dropped his cigarette in the garbage can. Total accident, but the principal was just not a big fan of our boy, was he?" Percy threw me a grateful smile, which I returned. Lying is always best when it has an element of truth.

Lying is my life here. No one tells the truth about anything. We are all guarded shells of damaged and abused people. We're crazy. Everyone here has eluded sanity and we have our pasts. We follow the rules and do what we're told because, as much as this place is an eternal incarceration, most of us have seen worse, lived worse. This was home, and if St. Francis was ever investigated, we know there would be no way we'd be allowed to stay.

The student/teacher relationships were just one fraction of the dysfunctional establishment. They probably wouldn't take too well to our shrine.

"Oh man lame. You get sent to a place like this on a flukey misrelationship? You could sue. That's harassment." Grover scowled as he continued to go on about all the rights Percy had.

I was impressed at how long he kept up with Grover; nodding his head at just the right moments and asking the right questions. Grover liked to whine that he didn't know anyone at the school that could keep up to him intellectually, apart from myself that is. Now that he had Percy, I hoped he'd stop inviting me to watch PlanetGlobal in his dorm.

We all stayed quiet, listening to Grover rant on, my hand resting in Percy's and Calypso's hand still steady on his thigh.

It seemed higher up than it had been before. I leaned over Percy, allowing my chest to casually rest on his arm while I engaged in my own conversation with Calypso.

 _He's mine,_ I imagined burning the words into her brain with my eyes.

In return, she snarled. _They're all yours. Give us a break._

Before I could say anything Luke walked in.

Sorry, I meant Mr. Castellan. Mr. Castellan had been a student here when I was just a little girl. He had so much promise and ambition, we'd all been shell shocked when three years after graduating, he returned. I was a young woman by then, and he noticed. While everyone was too busy staring stupidly at his back while he wrote lessons on the board, I crossed my legs in eager anticipation.

He came back for me. I knew he did. It took me two weeks to gain my courage, and with some help from Piper, I stayed after school in my best waiting to give Luke what he'd came back looking for. He promptly informed me he hadn't been disappointed, and that I was all he imagined I would be. This would have been sweet, had I been able to reply and my skirt not been hiked up past my hips.

Calypso followed my stare and after seeing Mr. Castellan, returned her gaze to glower at me. I smirked and casually draped my leg over Percy's. He looked at me with a puzzled stare.

"Sorry, I really hate talking to people when I'm not facing them square on." I motioned between Calypso and myself. He pursed his lips and nodded; a plausible excuse. I soon turned my conversation to Piper, tapping my finger anxiously on Percy's shoulder, waiting for Luke to look.

He did. I threw my head back and laughed along with the table at something Leo had said, but I didn't know what it was. I was too busy enjoying the shocked look that spread across Luke's face as he sat at the teachers table. His tray sat untouched for two whole minutes before his eyebrows pulled together and he went to busy himself, eating lunch.

When lunch had ended, I rose from my chair in Percy's direction bringing us chest to chest. He blushed, and I pretended to. I took a step back and rested my hand on his chest, pretending to distance us.

"Sorry about that. Didn't meant to get into your bubble." Percy kind of smiled and shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Any time."

I smiled and turned away. I walked intentionally past the teachers table and gave a wave to the Director and Chiron.

"Hey, Mr. Castellan. Is that paper still due today? Because I still have a lot of questions. I just really didn't understand that movie." Luke visibly swallowed, but didn't answer. "Sorry! Sorry, not the time. I'll let you eat your lunch." With that I walked away.

Yes. Percy was my Christmas present. He would do just nicely.


End file.
